


All The Way Home I'll Be Warm

by miera



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 15:04:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera





	All The Way Home I'll Be Warm

"Teyla!"

Cold. It was so cold. But her chest burned. The air burned her skin and lungs and eyes.

There were voices, but they were distant, muffled and she couldn't take the time to hear. Every muscle clenched, trying to pull back and away from the pain but there was nowhere to go.

Too weak to fight, she can only shake and bend and let herself be handled until the darkness is pushing at the edges of everything. Hands cup her face, dry, hot skin against her cheeks and she gives in and passes out.

***

She draws in the breath reluctantly, aware as she wakes that it has been a long, slogging struggle to consciousness, resisting progress at every step. She is cocooned in warmth and all she wants is to snuggle back into it and bury herself in sleep again. But the slightest shift of her legs brings pain and with a gasp she realizes every muscle hurts.

At her choked whimper, someone brushes her cheek. Teyla opens her eyes to see Elizabeth looking at her with concern. Teyla recognizes the sensation against her skin. Elizabeth's hands cupping her face, telling her she would be all right, just before she blacked out.

The memories rush back. Being pursued from the village out into the blizzard, separated from Rodney and Ronon in the forest, the sudden gunshot sound that was her only warning she had strayed from ground to ice. Then stabbing pain like a thousand needles through her whole body when she fell.

"How are you feeling?"

Elizabeth's thumb brushes against her cheek in a reflex and Teyla tries to lick her dry lips and respond but her mouth is also dry.

"John-" Elizabeth begins and stops.

"Here." From behind her John hands her a canteen. When she groans from trying to sit up, his arm wraps around her shoulders and supports her enough to drink. Teyla swallows the cold water gratefully.

"Hard to believe she needs more water," John quips lightly. Elizabeth gives a rueful smile and they settle Teyla back to the ground.

Only then does she realize that she is sandwiched tightly in between them. A fire burns somewhere behind Elizabeth, and they are in some sort of cave. Over and underneath them are the emergency blankets from their packs along with their coats and other clothes. As John takes the canteen back Teyla registers that he is shirtless. And so is Elizabeth.

Both of them are stripped down to their underclothes. Her face heats as she glances down. Her own clothes have been completely removed, and she is dressed only in Elizabeth's shirt. Under the makeshift covers her legs and hips brush against Elizabeth's pelvis and John's thighs and she shivers all over again.

Elizabeth shifts even closer, one hand stroking Teyla's arm soothingly. "Do you remember what happened?"

Teyla stares at a point over Elizabeth's shoulder. "I fell through the ice."

"We managed to pull you out in a couple minutes but you went into shock," John put in from behind her. "You were slurring words and you couldn't walk. We had to get you warmed up slowly enough not to cause more damage."

Teyla nods, because she remembers now Carson going through the procedures with her for dealing with someone who had been trapped in the cold. It does not make this any less embarrassing.

"John found the cave and got the fire going," Elizabeth adds. Her fingers press just a little harder against Teyla's wrist, but it is enough to make her meet the other woman's eyes. "I got our lovely sleeping arrangements ready and got you inside."

She doesn't mean to sigh in relief, but it comes out anyway. It is not that she doesn't trust John but the idea of him undressing her while she is unconscious makes her profoundly uncomfortable.

John's arm shifts, still under her head as a pillow. "I kept my back turned, I swear." She can more feel than see the look he gives Elizabeth. The smirk in his voice is audible. "Which didn't stop Elizabeth from peeking while I was getting undressed."

Elizabeth grins a little guiltily. "Hey, I never claimed to be a gentleman."

She smiles and yawns at the same time. Sleep is tugging at her again, but now she resists. "I am all right," she says quietly. For the sake of their friendship and her own modesty, she knows they should separate, that Elizabeth and John need to get dressed and they can start working on a way out of here. But deep down she doesn't really want to move. As strange as it is to be lying barely dressed between them, the body heat is lulling and the contact of their skin comforting on some fundamental level. She had no idea how much she missed simple touch, although their present situation is not precisely "simple."

And in some even deeper, buried place, she admits to herself the press of bodies on either side and the intimate contact remind her of something she hasn't had in a very long time, of something she never would have fantasized about. Not until now, anyway.

"Yes, you are," Elizabeth says, but her tone is not one of agreement. Elizabeth lays down, curling her arm under her head and tucking herself even closer, her other arm wrapped around Teyla's shoulder. "But we're going to stay like this for a while longer just in case."

John's arm lays across Teyla's side and must end up resting on Elizabeth's hip given the angle and the closeness of their bodies under the blankets. "Not like we've got anyplace to go at the moment anyway." His body is a solid wall of warmth against her back and she feels so protected, so safe in spite of everything, she could cry with the relief of it.

Elizabeth sings under her breath, "Oh the weather outside is frightful..." and John shakes with a laugh and Teyla can't keep her eyes open any longer. She slides back to sleep to the sound of their whispers and the great warmth that now surrounds her.


End file.
